The sports car manufacturer did better in the second quarter of the year. But the first half of the year saw declines. Porsche boss Blume has already lowered the annual forecasts.
After a weak start to the year, sports car manufacturer Porsche AG has got back on track in the second quarter. The operating return on sales in the three months from April to June was 17.0 percent, announced the DAX company, which is majority-owned by the Volkswagen Group.
Analysts had expected an average margin of 16.3 percent. In the first quarter, it was 14.2 percent because, among other things, high research and development costs were incurred and Porsche is currently launching many new models on the market.
Despite the better performance in the second quarter, Porsche boss Oliver Blume had lowered the annual forecasts earlier this week. Due to the consequences of flooding at an aluminum supplier, the Stuttgart-based company is expecting production delays.
Sales and operating profit decreased
In the first half of the year, business continued to decline due to the introduction of new and refreshed models and weak sales in China. Sales fell by almost 5 percent to 19.5 billion euros; operating profit shrank by a good fifth to 3.06 billion euros. The operating margin thus fell by more than 3 percentage points to 15.7 percent. For the year as a whole, management is targeting a range of 14 to 15 percent.
Combustion engines are once again in focus
CFO Lutz Meschke announced that, given the difficult market situation for electric cars, the focus would once again be on combustion engines. “As the transformation to electromobility is developing very differently around the world, we have already begun to recalibrate and prioritize projects and products with regard to combustion engine technology,” he said, according to the statement. The strategy includes the greatest possible flexibility in the production of the various types of drive.
Source: Stern
